Hot Shots - June 24, 2022

Hot Shots - June 24, 2022
Severin R-B Danieli

Hello all,

We were up in Kelowna this past weekend for a family wedding, and boy, was it a busy one! We headed up to Manning Park on Friday after I finished up my day at Disco, and then got on the road bright and early Saturday morning to pick up some wine in Cawston from Scout Vineyard - a beautiful and small natural wine producer.

As we were driving through Cawston, I remembered that it is the organic capital of Canada, so I kept my eyes peeled for familiar names and farms.

After we stood in the rain and chatted with a Scout winemaker, we hopped back into the car and drove up to Kelowna to another natural wine vineyard, Anthony Buchanan Wines. We chatted with Anthony himself, had a tasting and admired the beautiful rows of vines that overlooked the Okanagan lake.

Then the family and friend festivities started and it was full steam ahead till Monday morning when we had a delicious breakfast and headed back down to the coast for the work week to start.

Scout winery pictured to the left, and Anthony Buchanan to the right.

Lacinato kale, black kale, dinosaur kale, cavolo nero, Tuscan kale .... the list goes on and on.

Black kale is a standout kale variety, and so versatile. Roasted kale chips with seasoning, black kale and cannellini bean soup, massaged with olive oil and chopped up into a salad, sautéed with garlic and olive oil, as with this kales name, the recipe list goes on and on.

This kale comes from the KPU farm school (Kwantlen Polytechnic University). KPU holds a special place in my heart as I referenced a lot of their bioregional food system research in my thesis, as well as one of the professors in the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems department was one of my advisors.

KPU has two farm schools, one in Tsawwassen and one in Richmond. Their programs are great, and if you ever wanted to learn more, take a look at their website, Instagram, and even their YouTube channel!

One of the many batches of cavolo nero & cannellini bean soup consumed in Italy.  

Bok Choy.

Fresh, local, hearty and packed with nutrients. This bok choy comes to us from Bluehouse Organics, up in Pemberton. A quickly growing veg, it was actually the first crop I harvested while working just up the road from Bluehouse at Laughing Crow. If someone asked me what the first veg I would harvest would be, I would have never ever thought of bok choy. Also, did you know celery grows very slowly? The more ya know!

Bok choy takes about 45 days from seed to harvest, whereas celery takes about 130-140 days.

Bok choy does very well in a stir fry, steaming or a quick boil. Fry up the bok choy with your preferred oil, some sesame seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, soya sauce ... mmm delicious!

Pictured above is the first bok choy harvest I did at Laughing Crow, and, like any vegetable geek would do, a photo of my first packed CSA box. Complete with both bok choy and garlic scapes (keep scrolling for these guys!)

Green onions.

Olera farms, one of our local producers, are known for their bunched spinach, their fresh raspberries and their very, very tall green onions. Sometimes the tips of the onions can't even fit in their boxes! Olera is a certified organic farm and grows over 40 varieties of fruits and veg, and has been in operation in the Fraser Valley since 1987.

Green onions are used widely in Chinese cooking, and the principle onion in Japanese cuisine, as well in Mexican cuisine for a pop of colour and burst of flavour.

Mushrooms!

White JBO mushrooms from Highline to be exact. A quick mushroom history lesson: white button mushrooms were first cultivated in France by a French botanist by the name of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in 1707. At the turn of the 20th century, these mushrooms had made their way over to the USA and were cultivated in Pennsylvania.

Highline was founded in 1961, by Dr. Murray O'Neil as a family farm in the town of Leamington, Ontario. These mushrooms have since spread throughout Canada, into the USA and to Japan. Currently, Highline if one of the largest growers of fresh mushrooms in all of North America.

This may be a tad controversial, but my favourite pizza happens to be red sauce, blend of cheeses, and then pineapple and mushroom.

Garlic scapes! I told ya they were coming!

Coming into season in late spring and early summer, garlic scapes have a similar flavour to garlic, but have a milder, nuttier and grassier profile. Scapes are harvested from any type of hardneck garlic, so they are readily available anywhere garlic can be grown.

For cooking your scapes, they really can be done any which way; grill, roast, saute, chop or raw. Top some simple, but sophisticated, spaghetti with parmesan and chopped scapes, find the recipe here. Or in keeping with the pasta theme, some garlic scape pesto, linked here!

I am heading to Discovery's Calgary Warehouse next week for a few days, so that will be a bit of a work adventure for me. Meet the crew there and help out where I can.

The coast is in for a hot weekend, so stay safe and hydrated, folks!

Big love,
Severin R-B Danieli